Author's Note: Because I love that common trait between 2012 Leo and Mikey. Translated from my fic Excursion.

Everything was quiet in the lair. No patrol had been planned tonight; the turtles enjoyed a much-deserved respite in their fight against the Kraang.

Leo was reading one of his precious Space Heroes comics on the couch of the living room, bouncing from time to time in his enjoyment. Raph was feeding his pet turtle Spike with the greenest of salads. Even Donnie wasn't conducting explosive experiments in his lab. He was sitting on the floor and toying with an old radio for spare parts.

A scream shattered this peace and quiet, a scream coming from a well-known voice.

"Leeeeeeeeeeeeeeo!"

The aforementioned turtle turned sharply, ready to unsheathe the katana that lay against the couch. However, although the voice was insistent it didn't sound panicked. Leo didn't think he would need his weapons.

"Mikey! What's the problem?"

"Look at this!" The orange-masked turtle rushed inside the room to flatten a newspaper against his brother's face.

"I can't read," Leo said, half-amused and half-resigned.

Mikey moved the newspaper a few inches away so his brother could read its content. Surprisingly, it was from that day; Mikey must have found it near a manhole. People threw away all kinds of items in the gutter.

The title of an article had been highlighted by Mikey. Leo's eyes widened when he realized what it was.

"I can't believe it!"

His overexcited voice drew Raphael's attention. Until then, the red-masked turtle hadn't moved an inch, as if Mikey screaming was business as usual.

"What's up?"

"The new Space Heroes comic! It's available! It wasn't supposed to be published before next week!"

Leo stood up and began bouncing on the couch under Mikey's happy gaze. Raph rolled his eyes to make up for his amused smile.

"All this racket for a comic?"

Donnie, living up to his legendary curiosity, had come closer to read the newspaper.

"Not just one comic. It looks like several of Mikey's favorite comics have been published too."

Mikey nodded enthusiastically.

"What are we waiting for? Let's go buy them!"

Leo stopped bouncing, his strategist mind getting the upper hand.

"Buy them? As in, buy them in the comic shop?" He shook his head. "We can't do that, Mikey."

"Come on, Leo, pleaaaaaase! If we order them online they won't be delivered for another 24 hours! It's way too long! I know a comic shop that stays open late in the night. We can go there!"

"Mikey, we're mutants. Giant mutant turtles. We can't just enter a shop to buy comics," Donnie said with a very slow and very reasonable voice.

Mikey's sad face prompted Raph to stand up and pat him on the shoulder.

"You can always text April and ask her to drop by the comic shop before school. That way it'll take less than 24 hours."

"I could do it for you," Donnie interjected with his I'm-madly-in-love voice.

"You're not funny, guys." Mikey was the very image of disappointment. "What am I going to do tonight?"

"You can always re-read your old comics," Raph suggested. "That way, you'll enjoy the new ones better!"

"Yes, maybe," Mikey said. He headed for the kitchen, each step heavier than the last, in order to drown his sorrow in pizza.

In the living room, Leo sat down pensively. He would never have admitted it to his brothers, but he felt disappointed.

He agreed with Mikey. An entire night without the brand new Space Heroes comic was an eternity.

In the dark and silent night, two shadows ran on the rooftops. The rare pigeons who hadn't taken refuge for the night watched them with indifference.

"I can't believe you convinced me to do that," one of the shadows muttered.

"It was the only way, Leo," the second one answered joyfully. "Waiting for an entire night, can you imagine?"

"Splinter will be mad if he notices it."

"Why would he? Besides, we're doing nothing wrong. We're allowed to go topside now. We've waited long enough for it!"

Leo nodded. Their father had denied them every trip to the surface until they reached fifteen. However, the situation had advantages: since then, he let them free to go wherever they wanted.

"Did you leave a note for Raph and Donnie like I told you? Just in case they realize we're gone."

Mikey smiled.

"Yes, I did. Don't worry, they won't suspect a thing!"

In the lair's kitchen where he had gone to take a glass a water, Raph frowned at a piece of paper. His name and Donnie's were written on it. He unfolded it and quickly realized that Leo hadn't left them to go meditate in his room after all, and that Mikey was no more pouting in his own room.

Superheroes on the move, we'll be back in no time!

Mikey

P.S. We're not going to the comic shop.

P.P.S. Don't tell Splinter we're not going to the comic shop!

Mikey and Leo watched their target from the rooftop of a nearby building. Apart from the cashier, who was busy reading a book, the comic shop was deserted.

"We'll need a diversion," Leo whispered. He always got caught up in the game whenever a plan was required.

Mikey spotted a shape dumpster diving in a street.

"I've got the perfect idea!"

"We'll also need to switch off cameras," Leo went on. "We don't want to find ourselves in high definition on the Internet!"

"You want to use shuriken to destroy them?" Mikey asked.

Leo grimaced. "No, this storekeeper didn't do anything to us. We're not going to damage his shop."

He took something from his belt. The small item looked a lot like one of Donnie's inventions.

"I've borrowed that from Donnie's lab. It'll switch off cameras and dim the lights inside the shop. The last thing we need is to take unnecessary risks."

If Raph had been there, he would probably have made a point to say that this whole expedition was one big unnecessary risk.

Luckily for Leo's ears, he was still in the lair.

"Amazing!"

Mikey grinned, then he seemed to realize something.

"Donnie didn't ask you why you needed it?"

"Uh..." Leonardo cleared his throat, clearly embarrassed.

"You didn't ask him! Oooh, he's not going to be happy."

Leo whispered something inaudible.

"Do you even know how to use it?" Mikey went on mercilessly.

"Of course," Leo retorted. "Donnie showed me his blueprints. It's easy, there are only two buttons."

Leo didn't clarify that Donnie had just finished this invention and it wasn't tested yet. He would put it back in Donnie's lab without anyone noticing, and of course he intended to look impressed and enthusiastic when Donnie would use it for the first time.

"Let's go!"

Mikey nodded and both brothers climbed down the building.

When Leo pressed the first button on Donnie's device, the effect was instantaneous. The cashier straightened up, surprised by the sudden dimness. Leo waved to Mikey, who released the stray cat he had caught one moment before.

Mikey had convinced it to help, at the cost of very few scratches.

The cat entered the shop. It had around his neck a collar with the money the two turtles intended to spend in the comic shop, and it wasn't long before the cashier realized how profitable it would be to catch it.

The man temporarily forgot about the dimness or the sudden lack of images on the monitor screens and slowly walked towards the cat.

Mikey and Leo sneaked inside the shop. Mikey hid behind a set of shelves and led his four-legged accomplice away from Leo.

"Nice cat. Beautiful cat. Come over here," the cashier whispered.

In the meantime, Leo had found what he was looking for. Barely thirty seconds later, both he and Mikey were out of the shop. The cat had allowed the human to take his money, and was now savoring a smelly fish that Mikey had found for him in a closed dumpster, inaccessible to the average feline. In the shop, the cashier had climbed on a chair to inspect his light bulbs.

"Do you have them?" Mikey asked eagerly, although Leo's triumphant smile was proof in itself.

Leo gave him his precious comics.

"Oh yeah!" Mikey grinned. "And to think that they didn't want us to go!"

Leo nodded with enthusiasm. "It was a piece of cake!"

Both turtles bumped fists to celebrate their victory. Then Leo pressed the second button on Donnie's device to reactivate cameras and full lighting.

He did his best to ignore the sound of broken cogs device emitted by the device. It had worked, he could see it in the shop; there was probably no reason to worry.

Leo and Mikey sneaked silently inside their home, like only trained ninja could. They were both eager to read their respective comics.

The light was switched on as soon as they set foot in the living room.

"So?" Raph asked, his hands on his hips. "Did somebody change his mind about the relevance of buying comics in a shop when you're a mutant turtle?"

He pointed an accusative finger towards the blue-masked turtle. "Aren't you supposed to be the reasonable one?"

Mikey put a triumphant arm around Leo's shoulders, sticking his tongue out for good measure. Leo gave Raph a sheepish smile and hurried to give him a magazine.

"It's for you."

Raph raised an eye ridge and took it. Its title read Everything for your pet turtle.

"Hmm," he said. "Are you trying to buy my silence?"

"We trust you, Raph," Mikey cajoled. "You wouldn't tell on us, right? This is just a gift, because you're our favorite hothead."

"Mikey," Leo whispered. "We said diplomacy, remember?"

Raph frowned to avoid smiling and browsed through the magazine. It had interesting articles. Reading them might help him to entertain Spike.

"I guess you've another one for Donnie?" he asked to demonstrate that he wasn't going to yield so easily.

"Of course," Leo said proudly. "He's not there?"

"In the garage. He had a sudden idea for improving the Shellraiser."

Raph decided that he had showed his disapproval enough and made for his room, punching his brothers' shells slightly on his way.

"I hope it was worth it."

The two lost causes nodded, the same beatitude showing on their faces. Raph rolled his eyes and left them. He had to do with Spike.

Mikey grinned at Leo. "And now..."

Everything was quiet in the lair. The turtles had retired for the day or would soon do it, and nothing would disturb their peace and quiet.

Nothing, except...

"Leo!" Donnie hammered on his brother's door as hard as he dared to avoid waking Splinter up. "Open up, we need to talk!"

The purple-masked turtle glared daggers at the door, getting ready for the upcoming showdown. It hadn't taken him long to understand who was responsible when he had wanted to tweak his last invention, only to realize that it was broken.

"Stop ignoring me! I know it's you."

That particular deduction hadn't required the full use of his prodigious abilities. He had only talked about it with Leo.

"If you don't let me in, I'll pick up a saw and open it myself," he threatened.

From his comfy bed, Mikey could hear every word of Donnie's talk.

"Do you think he'll do it?" he whispered to his blue-masked brother.

"It's a possibility," Leo whispered back. "I hope he'll notice before that the door isn't locked. In any case, I don't intend to interfere right away."

Side by side under Mikey's almost clean quilt, both brothers exchanged a knowing glance before going back to their well-earned reading.